Dec. 23, 1999, BCE Emergis reports that Omicron Technology
claims to have demonstrated practical satellite based
e-commerce and information services for vehicles using
GPS to locate a vehicle, sending a call back to a monitoring
station and replying via AM/FM radio frequency.
http://www.omicrontechnologies.com/
http://www.radiosat.com/
[1999/12/28]
Dec. 22, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks Corporation has
announced that it has joined "Radicchio" which is "a global
initiative to unleash the power of wireless e-commerce" based
on a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for secure transactions.
[1999/12/28]
Dec. 21, 1999, Scott Hillis writes for Reuters regarding 3Com's
Q2 financial report, that Palm has sold a total of more than
5 million units [presumably since the first commercial sales
of Palm Pilots], and currently, revenues for the Palm division,
rose 77 percent from a year earlier to $260.9 million [US].
[The article is not clear whether this revenue in the quarter
or for the half year.]
[1999/12/28]
Dec. 21, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Inukshuk Internet
Inc. have begun technical trials of Cisco Systems Canada's
Multipoint Communications Systems (MCS) for delivery of high
speed internet via wireless in the 2500 MHz band using Cisco's
Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM) air
interface. Other companies involved as partners in this test
are Look Communications Inc. and Microcell Telecommunications
Inc.
http://www.inukshuk.ca/
http://wwwlook.ca/
http://www.cisco.com/ca/
[1999/12/26]
Dec. 18, 1999, PR Newswire reports that City Telecom (H.K.) Ltd.
has announced CTI Mobile Roaming Service and International Call
Forwarding Service based on a "pre-paid SIM" card which can
inserted in a cutomer's handset to have wireless services in
Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Singapore and the USA. Where
necessary, rental handsets are also available. CTI intends to
". . . slash the mobile roaming charges . . ."
http://www.ctihk.com/>
[1999/12/26]
The events surrounding my upgrading from my Mac LC630 to my latest Macintosh Performa 6360, coming only partly coincidentally with the coming of the year 2000, gave me a lot of reasons to think about the industry in general, and in particular about the current interest in Linux.
Actually, this year has shown the strongest practical arguments for "Open Source" software -- both system and application, that we could expect to see.
In general, the effect of the Y2K problem is that some old software is at the least irritating, because if you prefer to show dates in a particular way, you may not have that option. In purely esthetic terms I don't want to use programs that output the date with an "00" year. I'd rather show "2000". That's completely aside from the practical problem that some programs that use dates in calculations may give erroneous results. But if I don't have the source code, and the company is no longer supporting that program, I can't fix it.
[I haven't had time to confirm it, but my understanding is that ISO has defined a standard date format "YYYY-MM-DD". An example would be showing "Dec. 31, 2000" as "2000-12-31" Personally, I've been using "2000/12/31" as my preferred format for years.]
In the case of Quadra (68K) Macs, Y2K wasn't supposed to be an issue because the Mac date system was based on a different counting system, and for the most part it hasn't been. But over the last year, what has become an issue is the lack of support for Quadra Macs by Apple, and 3rd party program providers. The effect has been to force me to upgrade, despite the fact that my Quadra technology Mac LC630 had sufficient processor power for my needs. Within the last year, very ironically Palm Computing stopped providing upgrades for the Palm emulator for 68K Macs -- because they didn't know of any developers still using 68K Macs. Well, maybe there weren't any developers, but I'm a writer covering Palm, and I was using the Palm emulator. The latest version of a Palm program I was going to write about (Image Viewer III) wouldn't run on the last version of the Palm emulator for 68K Macs, so I was stuck. The irony is that the Palm devices are actually using 68K processors.
What finally killed the LC630 for my purposes was that Adobe Type Manager (ATM) stopped working for no apparently reason about a week ago. This may actually be some kinds of "Y2K-like" problem. Again, if I had time and source code, I might be able to fix the problem, but without the source code, and with the attitude of Adobe (they don't even provide a way of reporting bugs on their website), I decided that it's not worth my considering any kind of software patching on my own. As such I finally bought a "refurbished" Mac LC6360.
Now consider that on a contemporary 486/DX2-4 (66 - 100 MHz) box with at least 32MB RAM, one can run the latest version of Linux for free. Extrapolate the current business practices backwards to when the LC630 came out. I could have upgraded that 486 box over all the years, to today's latest system software, for free.
Compare that to Windows and MacOS over the last couple of years -- even aside from the complete abandonment of 68K Macs.
In 486 terms, that would have been like moving from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, to "later" Windows 95, to Windows 98, to Windows NT, and next year to Windows 2000, but for free. In Mac terms that would have been like moving from MacOS 7.0, to 7.5, to 8.0, to 9.0 to "X" -- all for free. And then as a last resort, if there's something that some company abandons that I need to fix, I could still fix some things myself.
Moreover, the current position of Apple is that the next major OS upgrade, which is not very far off, (currently called "MacOS X") won't even run on pre-G3 PowerPC based Macs.
There's more I could say about this, particularly that current Linux, especially on a x86 is pretty good already, and still rapidly improving. But at bottom, if one has been a heavy computer users over the last couple of years, in either the Mac or Windows worlds, we have had ample opportunity to see advantages of Open Source software.
[The original version of the above was a reply to a Usenet
news posting. It occurred to me that what I wrote was something
I'd been thinking about for some time, and which has a pervasive
impact on the computer industry. I make no predictions about
"Linux burying Microsoft in X years," but as I wrote, it is clear
that the events of this year have made the strongest case one can
imagine for Open Source software.]
[1999/12/26]
Dec. 17, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Mercedes-Benz model year
2000 cars can now include a Motorola StarDAC phone, integrated
with the car's electronics. The car's display will display
the phone's information, and voice recognition can be used to
control some of the car's functions.
[1999/12/21]
Dec. 17, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that MTT Mobility has
announced that digital PCS service is now available in Pictou
County, providing continuous coverage including Truro and Metro
Halifax. MTT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aliant Inc.
http://www.mtt.ca/
http://www.aliant.ca/
[1999/12/21]
Dec. 14, 1999, Reuters and Associate Press in separate articles report that that 3Com Corp. has officially filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosing that AOL and Motorola will each take as much as 1.5% of the shares, and that Nokia is expected to also buy a portion of unknown size. Reuters points out that Ericsson is also now working with Microsoft Corp. and that Motorola has said it will work with both Symbian and Palm Computing to provide wireless information products, and particularly will license PalmsOS for use in Motorola products.
[It appears that all 3 major cell phone makers, Ericsson, Motorola
and Nokia might be stepping back a bit from their previous position
to unite on Symbian's EPOC OS. I have no current information about
any particular reasons for this, aside from the obvious attraction of
working with the clear leader in the industry.]
[1999/12/18]
Dec. 14, 1999, Communications Today reports that on Dec. 13, 1999, the
International Telecommunications Union's Study Group 11 agreed on
six network-related standards which will be part of the IMT-2000
3rd generation specification. The areas affected include signaling,
security, functional modeling and compatibility with the Network
to Network Interface protocol, forming an important step towards
roaming compatibility during the transition from 2nd generation to
3rd generation systems.
[1999/12/18]
Dec. 13, 1999, Business Wire reports that Dell Computer Corporation has announced a new "ultralight" laptop computer called the Dell(R) Latitude(R) LS, and a higer performance version of its "lightweight" Dell Latitude CSx. Both use Intel Mobile Pentium(R) III processors.
The Latitude LS uses a 1" thick magnesium alloy chassis to achieve a
weight of 3.5 lbs. including a 4-cell battery.
http://www.dell.com/products/notebook/latitude/index.htm
[1999/12/18]
Dec. 13, 1999, Business Wire reports that the US Commerce Department
awarded Patent No. 6,000,000 to 3Com Corporation for its "Extendable
Method for Synchronizing Multiple Files on Two Different Computer
Systems" (the HotSynch(R) system) by Jeff Hawkins and Michael Albanese.
US Patent and Trademark Office
http://www.uspto.gov/
[1999/12/18]
Dec. 10, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Unique Broadband
Systems, Inc. (UBS) has announced that it has commenced the
development of "RealLinux(TM) which a real-time OS based on Linux.
According to UBS, their source code will be open to the public
and the first application will be based on the Motorola
68360 CPU.
[1999/12/14]
Dec. 9, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel INc.
has announced that it has begun Digital PCS service in
Steinbach, Manitoba. In a separate announcement, Rogers
Cantel Inc. announced "Pay As You Go" service has
begun in Brandon, Manitoba. In another separate announcement,
Rogers Cantel Inc. also announced "Pay As You Go" service
has commenced in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
[1999/12/14]
Dec. 8, 1999, (Business Wire reports that IBM has announced the
availability of ViaVoice Millenium Edition 1.0 for Macintosh.
IBM claims this is the first continuous speech recognition
software for the Apple Macintosh platform. The minimum system
is MacOS 8.5.1 (or 8.6 or 9.0), a 233MHz PowerPC CPU, 48MB RAM,
200MB HD space, a CD-ROM and an audio input jack compatible with
Andrea NC-71 microphones. Specifically mentioned as compatible
are the iMac, PowerMac G3 and G4 and PowerBook G3. The software
will be available this week in the US and Canada priced at
$89.95 US.
http://www.ibm.com/software/speech/
[1999/12/14]
Dec. 8, 1999, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced a "comprehensive support program for independent software vendors (ISVs) and corporate developers to help them create new applications for wireless devices. The program features a software took kit and a new testing facility, as well as a direct link to Nokia for developers that want to use Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to extend Web and enterprise data to next generation WAP phones. Nokia will support the center, providing technical assistance and WAP devices for application development and testing. . . ."
"Unlike PC applications that can be tested with the same equipment
they are created on, pervasive computing applications are more
involved. They require developers to port and test applications
on multiple devices in a variety of scenarios, which can be expensive
and complex. The pervasive computing testing facility offers a
number of testing environments, which could help reduce developers'
expenses and time - to - market."
[1999/12/14]
Dec. 8, 1999, Robert Ristelhueber writes for EE Times that TFT
LCD's are likely to remain in short supply for the first half
of next year, easing in the second half of the year.
[1999/12/14]
Dec. 7, 1999, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard
Company and Socket Communications Inc. have announced that
they are working together to develop Bluetooth single and
multifunctional CompactFlash CF+ cards for HP's Jornada
handheld computers.
Socket Communcations Inc.
http://www.socketcom.com/
[1999/12/11]
Dec. 7, 1999, Reuters reports that Sun Microsystems Inc. has
withdrawn its submission to have ECMA adopt Java as a
formal standard. It had previously withdrawn its similar
submission to ISO.
[1999/12/11]
Dec. 7, 1999, Associated Press reports that the W95.Babylonia
virus can be spread through use of Chat rooms as well as
EMail. It appears as a Y2K fix but allows the virus writer
to control the infected machine. It is potentially very
dangerous. Its primary vector is autodownloading in MIRC
chat software.
[1999/12/11]
Dec. 6, 1999, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced its
new AMD-K6-2E embedded processor in standard and low-power
consumption versions. The low power version runs with a 1.9V
core voltage consuming less than 10 watts, and is cabable
of extended temperature range usage to 85 degrees C. Available
immediately, the low power versions in quantities of 1,000 are
priced at $69 US for the 333 MHz AMD-K6-2E/333AMZ processor
and $66 US for the 300 MHz AMD-K6-2E/300AMZ. Normal power
version are $61 US at 350 MHz (AMD-K6-2E/350AFR) and $59 US
for at 333 MHz (AMD-K6-2E/333AFR).
[1999/12/11]
Dec. 6, 1999, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has announced that its latest OmniBook 900 laptop computer will
feature the Intel(R) Mobile Pentium(R) III 500Mhz and a wireless
Wide Area Network (WAN) bundle. The package is immediately
available with prices starting at $3,500 US.
[1999/12/11]
Dec. 6, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Lucent Technologies and
Motorola have announced the availability of their StarCore SC140
DSP core and have demonstrated its viability by producing an
"initial silicon" implimentation.
http://www.starcore-dsp.com/
[1999/12/11]
Dec. 4, 1999, Associated Press reports that there are a number
of Y2K related viruses which may cause problems early in the
new year. [Rather than try to track them on this page,
I'll recommend that you check the CERT, McAfee and Symantec
websites.]
Some Websites: I do not endorse any of these sites. Only
the Carnegie Mellon site is not commercial.
Central Command Inc.
Carnegie Mellon's Computer Emergency
Response Team (CERT -- computer virus tracking) http://www.cert.org/
Symantec Anti-Virus Center
Trend Micro Inc.
http://www.antivirus.com/
[I'm not sure about "McAfee.com". It might be as simple as
"http://www.mcafee.com/", but I haven't tried it.]
[1999/12/07] revised [1999/12/11]
It may come as a surprise that I have only briefly used a 56Kbps modem. I bought a Cardinal X2 modem and used it for a few weeks before trying to upgrade it to V.90. When the upgrade failed to work I decided to buy another modem. Expecting that the Cardinal would work eventually, I only bought a GVC 33.6Kbps modem to get me through the wait. But then Cardinal (Hayes) went bankrupt and no working upgrade was ever posted on their website. Since 56Kbps modems really aren't that much faster than 33.6's anyway, I never bothered to buy another modem.
This past week, Pathway Communications decided to upgrade its modem pool and unfortunately, an anomaly resulted. While the GVC 33.6 worked with my Windows 95 laptop, for some reason, the settings used by the Mac caused it to fail by not detecting the proper carrier. I tried upgrading the latest Mac driver, but that didn't help. Eventually, I might have been able to figure out a driver fix, but I decided that it was about time to try a V.90 again. Luckily, I still had my GVC 28.8 modem and GVC has an upgrade deal. I upgraded to their latest external Mac version 56K V.90 speakerphone/voice/ FAX/Modem. While I had a problem with the software installation on the Mac (which reported a bad floppy), and there is no manual or documentation (since the documentation is usually included on the CD-ROM for the Windows version), the main Modem functions are working properly and I am now enjoying full V.90 data connections. The only problem I have on the Mac is that the Speakerphone support isn't working.
I did test out the modem on the Windows 95 laptop, and everything,
including the speaker phone does seem to work, though not entirely
without flaw. The sound through my headset is not loud enough. Also,
I haven't tested the FAX facility on any computer, in any direction.
But it's been nice having the speed increase, and it's particularly
nice that its working on both my main computers. Hopefully, it'll
work on all my various permutations, but at the least, I have my main
connections reasonably debugged. Expect to hear more of this in
the future, particularly when I test connections for handheld devices
to the Internet.
[1999/12/11]
Dec. 2, 1999, Business Wire reports that 3Com Corporation has announced that Carl Yankowski, formerly President and COO of Sony Electronics, Inc. and President and CEO of Reebok Brand will be CEO and a Director of Palm Computing, Inc. on Dec. 13, 1999. Mr. Yankowski was a systems analyst and electrical engineer with both business and BSEE degrees from MIT.
[I don't usually mention moves like this, but it may be
indicative of the future role of Sony in Palm Computing's
business plans.]
[1999/12/07]
Dec. 2, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Telus has applied to
the CRTC to change 911 service charges in Alberta. Wireline
services will be reduced from 19 cents down to 16 cents per
month while wireless services will be charged 8 cents per month
per working phone number. The net effect is intended to
eliminate any gain from the new charge for wireless service
which were required by a recent decision of the CRTC.
[1999/12/07]
Dec. 2, 1999, Reuters reports that Khyber Technologies Corp. has
claimed to have filed suit against Hewlett-Packard Co., Everex
Systems, Inc., Casio Computer Co. Ltd., Uniden Corp. and Philips
Electronics for infringement of a 1997 patent covering "pocket-sized
organizers having the ability to store and retrieve audio messages
and messages entered through handwriting on the screen of the
device. . . . The Patent also covers such pocket-sized devices
with a homebase station for transmitting and receiving messages to
and from the device." Khyber is developing its own product called
the Pocket Partner which is designed to serve as a wireless phone,
organizer and Internet appliance.
[1999/12/07]
Dec. 1, 1999, Associated Press reports that Cisco Systems claims
to have a "new approach" to high-speed, low-cost Internet by
harnessing and redirecting voice and data microwave signals that
bounce off obstructions in large cities through "multichannel
multipoint distribution services (MMDS). [Caution! I'm not
convinced that the writer understood whatever it was that Cisco
actually announced.]
[1999/12/07]
Dec. 1, 1999, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced that
it has developed a new technology technology based on superior materials
caled Perovskites (a class of crystalline oxide materials) to replace
silicon dioxide, allowing for thinner gates.
[1999/12/07]
Dec. 1, 1999, PR Newswire reports that the Wireless Data Forum has
announced that Geoworks Corporation has become its newest member.
The Wireless Data Forum refers to itself as "an independent,
technology-neutral trade group dedicated to promoting the wireless
data industry."
Wireless Data Forum
http://www.wirelessdata.org/
[1999/12/07]
Dec. 1, 1999, Reuters reports that Intel Corp. announced on
Wednesday that it has found a bug in some current Pentium III chips
that causes a problem booting a computer. According to Intel
spokesman Michael Sullivan "If a system is powered all the way down,
and someone turns it on, it may not boot until you turn it on again."
Intel estimates that the problem may affect 1 - 2% of the "Coppermine"
chips manufactured to date, and that the problem will be eliminated
in "the next manufacturing cycle" of the Pentium III line. [No
estimate was given in the article when this would be. This does not
appear to include any current "mobile" chips, but there is no
specific exclusion of them either.]
[1999/12/07]
Nov. 30, 1999, Business Wire reports that Motorola Inc. and AT&T
have announced that the Motorola StarTAC ST7797 TDMA phone is now
available at AT&T stores. [I'm not sure why this is being billed
as a "Multi-Network" phone. Only TDMA is mentioned in the
article.]
[1999/12/07]
Nov. 30, 1999, Madeleine Acey writes for TechWeb that engineers at one of the world's biggest Internet exchanges are planning to use walkie talkies to communicate on New Year's Eve in order to avoid overloaded phone systems at midnight.
[This sounds like a good idea, and if you are planning on being
out at midnight, you might consider having alternative communcations
like this.]
[1999/12/04]
Nov. 30, 1999, Canadian Corporate News reports that Panasonic
Canada Inc. now offers a Sierra Wireless Inc. SB300 CDPD wireless
modem for the Panasonic Toughbook CF-27 computer. The modem
can be included from initial delivery or added later.
[1999/12/04]
Nov. 30, 1999, Business Wire reports that Cutting Edge Software
Inc. has announced that it has developed an interface to combine
ImageiWorks' ImagiProbe(TM) data collection and visualization
software and the Quicksheet spreadsheet for the PalmOS platform.
Cutting Edge Software Inc.
http://www.cesinc.com/
ImagiWorks
http://www.imagiworks.com/
[1999/12/04]
Nov. 30, 1999, Business Wire reports that according to Trend
Micro Inc., the Troj_Explorezip worm has returned but in a
different compression which alludes detection from previous
virus detection patches. Trend Micro has a new patch to
protect from it.
http://www.antivirus.com/
[1999/12/04]
Nov. 29, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Telus Mobility has
announced that its digital cellular service is now available in
Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Fort
McMurray, and Grand Prairie.
[1999/12/04]
Nov. 29, 1999, Business Wire reports that according to Motorola
Inc.'s Network Solutions Sector, it's high speed wireless Internet
access for cdmaOne(TM) networks will make its commercial debut
in Japan on Jan. 7, 2000. The technology is based on cdmaOne
TIA/EIA-IS-95B and allows data rates up to 64Kbps (faster than
V-90).
[1999/12/04]
Nov. 29, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc.
has announced that it has bought Digital PCS services to Pictou
County, Nova Scotia.
[1999/12/04]
I downloaded the Palm 3.3 update on Oct. 21, 1999, and I think
I updated on that date. If not, then I did so fairly soon after.
Furthermore, I think it was available before that date, so other
people have had this final version longer than me. So far,
no one has reported a "lost day" when using the 3.3 update, so
I think we can declare this a successful fix for that particular
bug. There may be other bugs fixed as well. Unfortunately, there
are some bugs still remaining and there have also been reports of
new bugs, so its still hard to say how much of an improvement
there has been overall specifically in terms of bugs.
[1999/12/04]
Nov. 26, 1999, Associated Press reports that Olympus and IBM
(Japan) have developed a prototype "Wearable PC". Weighing
13 oz., it is powered by a Pentium CPU with 64MB memory, and
runs Microsoft Windows. [Yet another one?]
[1999/11/30]
Nov. 26, 1999, Stuart Glascock writes for TechWeb that Samsung
Electronics' watchphone (cellphone/wristwatch) uses voice
recognition to start and receive phone calls. Lernout and
Hauspie have signed an agreement with Symbian covering L&H's
International Correct Spell and the IntelliFinder reference
engine. [I don't think that either of these are necessarily
for voice use. I'm not certain though.] Dragon Systems
showed its "Mobile Organizer Version 4" which allows dication
and synching voice to a main computer which can then translate.
[1999/11/30]
Nov. 25, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc.
has announced the availability of Cantel(R) AT&T(TM) Interactive
Messaging service, supporting Internet E-Mail in Halifax, Nova
Scotia. Using the RIM Inter@ctive Pager 950, messages up to
16,000 characters (about 5 text pages) can be delivered in about
10 seconds using Mobitex secure, packet-switching transmission.
Powered by an Intel 386(TM) CPU, and having a miniature QWERTY
keyboard and thumb wheel the 950 allows a reply to be written
and sent.
[1999/11/30]
Nov. 23, 1999, Business Wire reports that Motorola and
Mobilkom have achieve their first mobile data transfers
over General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) in Austria. When
trials have been completed, GPRS service will be integrated
into the existing GSM network with commercial operation
expected by summer 2000.
http://horizongprs.motorola.com/
[1999/11/30]
Nov. 23, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc. has
announced that it has extended coverage of "Pay As You Go" wireless
services in Alberta to the areas of Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Red Deer,
Ft. McMurray and Grande Prairie.
[1999/11/27]
Nov. 23, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has announced that orders are being taken for its new Prosignia
Notebooke 170 Portable Computer. Delivery will commence in December.
Prices start at $2,336 US.
[1999/11/27]
Nov. 23, 1999, Reuters reports that according to PC Data,
the Apple iBook was the top selling portable computer in the
US in October.
[1999/11/27]
Nov. 23, 1999, Loring Wirbel writes for EE Times that AudeSi Technologies, a startup company partnered with Sun Microsystems and Motorola is working on "Java bean middleware for Internet appliances ranging from mobile phones to set-top boxes and gaming platforms."
Nov. 23, 1999, Business Wire reports that according to Frost &
Sullivan, the Chinese mobile computer market is expected to
grow from a current 600,000 existing units at about 18.7% per
year through 2005 with sub-notebook computers overtaking notebook
computers. The report #4888-71, Oct. 1999 costs $2,950 US.
http://www.frost.com/
[1999/11/27]
Nov. 22, 1999, Business Wire reports that Dell Computer Corporation has announced availability of Aironet(TM) Wireless Communications Inc.'s 4800 Series wireless LAN products for enterprise use with speeds up to 11 Mbps. and plans for a consumer version "by the end of this year." For the current enterprise products, the portable computer card will cost $199 and $999 for a "access point." An access point can handle up to 50 simultaneous connections with coverage up to 300 feet.
Also, from Nov. 30, 1999, Dell will offer the Research In Motion
BlackBerry in the US. The Blackberry costs $399 per unit, and
airtime service is priced at $39.99 US per month with no roaming
or long distance surcharges. Compatible enterprise server software
(version 1.60 is priced at $2,999 US.
[1999/11/27]
Nov. 22, 1999, Business Wire reports that AMD has announced
that its PCnet-Home(TM) controller is the first Home Phoneline
Networking Alliance (HomePNA) compliant product to be European CE
certified.
[1999/11/27]
Nov. 22, 1999, America's Networks writes that the US will remain
a "wired" society through 2010 with wireless growth slowing after
next year. Projections are that the US wireless will have only 3%
of total voice traffic in 2000, rising to 5% by 2005 and 10% by 2010.
Due to falling prices, revenue growth will slow despite increase use.
"Wireless revenues are expected to increase to 15% to 20% by 2000,
remain at the 15% level through 2005, and settle to the 10% to 15%
level by the end of the next decade."
[1999/11/27]
Nov. 19, 1999, PR Newswire reports that the Anti-Virus Emergency
Response Team (AVERT) division of NAI Labs at Network Associates,
Inc. has announced that a new self-propagating virus has been
found which is being called "W97M/Prilissa". This is a Word 97
Macro virus similar to Melissa but with a payload that will
reformat a user's hard drive on Dec. 25 (any year). The virus
arrives via E-Mail with a subject line "Message From
"(C) 1999 - cyberNET Vine ... Vide ... Vice ... Moslem Power Never End ... You Dare Rise Against Me ... The Human era is Over, The CyberNET Era Has Come!!! [OK]"
Further infected E-Mail is sent to the first 50 entries in a Microsoft Outlook address book. The user's registry is modified. Then the modification causes the C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to be replaced on Dec. 25. The new payload will reformat the Hard Drive on the next boot.
[Nov. 19, 1999, Lee Kimber writes for TechWeb about the "Melissa.w"
virus which seems to be the same virus.]
http://www.nai.com/
http://www.McAfee.com/
[1999/11/23]
Nov. 19, 1999, Madeleine Acey writes for TechWeb that Dell has
said that its Irish plant in Limerick had halted production for
"several days" due to a computer virus infection. Although 500
comptuers were recalled, none was found to have been infected.
[The writer does not confirm that this was an infection of
the W32.FunLove.4099 virus that infects applications with
.EXE, .SCR and .OCX extensions and first found in the US on
Nov. 9, 1999, but seems to imply that it probably was this
virus.]
[1999/11/23]
Nov. 19, 1999, Maggie Fox writes for Reuters that following the
Hewlett-Packard/UCLA announcement in July, a second team of
developers from Rice University in Houston and Yale University
in New Haven has developed a molecular logic gate. According
to James Tour of Rice "The biggest difference is that ours was
reversible -- theirs was irreversible."
[1999/11/23]
Nov. 18, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Microcell Solutions Inc. and
National Bank of Canada have agreed to provide their customers
with access to financial services via their wireless phones. Tests
will be conducted commercial service will become available "next
year."
http://www.microcell.ca/
http://www.bnc.ca/
[1999/11/23]
Nov. 16, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has
extended its "Digital One Rate" service to cover "calls made and
received by Digital One Rate customers while in the U.S." which
effectively removes "roaming charges" for customers crossing
the Canada/US boarder. From Feb. 2000 onward, this will be
extended further "to calls made and received in the U.S."
[This is ambiguous but I think it means that long distance
within the US for DOR customers roaming in the US will be
eliminated.]
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 16, 1999, Business Wire reports that BSQUARE has announced a
significantly improved version (5.0) of its bFAX Pro software for
Windows CE. Internet FAXing is included as well as the ability to
receive FAXes while the machine is off (a service provided by
NetMoves or JFAX.COM) and the ability to annotate a received FAX.
bFAX Pro will be available for $49.95 "early first quarter, 2000."
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 16, 1999, Business Wire reports that Boundless Technologies,
Inc. has announced that its new iBrow(TM) information appliance
based on the National(R) Geode(TM) WebPAD(TM) reference platform,
the first production Internet access device based on this platform,
will be demonstrated at COMDEX '99.
Boundless Technologies, iBrow http://www.boundless.com/ibrow/
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 16, 1999, Business Wire reports that DT Research Inc.'s DT300
Wireless Thin Client uses Windows CE on National Semiconductor's
Geode(TM) GXLV processor. The DT300 uses the 2.5GHz band for
wireless LAN connectivity.
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 16, 1999, PR Newswire reports that an HP Jornada handheld
computer is used in the up coming James Bond movie "The World
Is Not Enough".
photo http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991116/NYFNSU02
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 15, 1999, Clearnet Communications Inc. has announced that
Clearnet PCS services are now available in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The current digital coverage area includes Halifax, Bedford,
Dartmouth, Uplands Park and the airport, with further expansion
in the province planned throughout 2000.
http://www.clearnet.com/
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 15, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Adobe Systems Incorporated
has announced that the latest version of Acrobat(R) Reader, available
today, supports "Web Buy", an encryption system allowing commercially
distributed books to be downloaded and read. Currently, 20 classic
books can downloaded for free from Adobe's website at no charge.
Versions are available for Windows(R) and Macintosh platforms.
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 15, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Geoworks Corporation and
Nokia have announced that they have extended their agreement
whereby Geoworks is helping to develop application software
for Nokia devices.
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 15, 1999, Associated Press reports that Hewlett-Packard Co.'s
Carly Fiorina has said that HP is working with Swatch to develop
a wristwatch that can access the Web. No details were provided.
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 15, 1999, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor
Corporation has announced that Infomatec AG will port its Linux-
based platform Java Network Technology(TM) operating system to the
National(R) Geode(TM) WebPAD(TM) platform.
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 15, 1999, Stephanie Miles writes for CNET that Everex has
discontinued its Windows CE based handheld computer product line.
[1999/11/20]
Nov. 16, 1999, Palm Computing, Inc. and Sony Corporation have announced to jointly develop a "next generation platform for handheld consumer electronics products with audio-visual (AV) functionality." Sony has licensed PalmOS and Palm has committed to supporting Sony's Memory Stick storage and data exchange technology "as part of the Palm Computing platform."
"Sony plans to implement the Palm Computing platform into an entirely new line of handheld electronics products that will not be limited to electronic organizers but are expected to include a wide range of mobile wireless telecommunications-enabled AV/IT consumer electronics products. In addition, Palm and Sony have agreed to jointly work on developing a future version of the Palm OS operating system which would incorporate not only Memory Stick technology but other Sony AV technologies as well. This new version of the Palm OS operating system would make it possible to develop a new generation of mobile consumer electronics products based on the Palm Computing platform, which will be made available for licensing by third parties."
[Sorry for the extensive quote. Sometimes exact wording is
important. I am interested in the apparent strength in the commitment
to "Memory Stick" whereas I had expected that in time Palm would
adopt the Handspring "Springboard" expansion port. Then again, Visor
could create a "Springboard" to receive a "Memory Stick."]
Sony Corporation
http://www.sony.co.jp/
[1999/11/16]
Nov. 10, 1999, Business Wire reports that on Nov. 8, 1999
Qualcomm announced its High Speed Data Rates (HDR) technology
which is compatible with cdmaOne(TM), capable of transmitting
up to 1.8 Megabits per second in fixed and mobile environments.
[1999/11/16]
Nov. 10, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell
Telecommunications Inc. has announced its financial and
operating results for the three months ending Sept. 30, 1999.
[Since subscriptions have already been announced, and I
do not generally post financial results on this Website,
I will summarize by saying that previous announced numbers
appear to be confirmed.]
[1999/11/16]
Nov. 10, 1999, Associated Press reports that a new virus known
as "Bubbleboy" or Seinfeld" is a "worm" virus that is
activated by merely highlighting the name of a received
EMail message subject line in "Outlook Express". It propogates
to all addresses in the e-mail program. It works if
"Windows Scripting Host" is present on the computer. The
current prank version renames the registered owner to "Bubbleboy"
and makes other "Seinfeld" references. It affects computers
using Windows 98, 2000, some versions of 95, (but not NT), if
used with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and Outlook Express.
The August upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.0 protects against
"Bubbleboy", Network Associates has a software patch, and
Microsoft's highest-security e-mail filter will block the
virus.
[1999/11/13]
Nov. 9, 1999, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has announced that it will release its "e-speak" source code on Dec. 8, 1999 for open source developers.
[I'm not sure what "e-speak" is. It seems to be an interprocess
language or protocol. The release notes that it is being used
with Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) for complex transactions.]
http://www.hp.com/e-speak/developers/
http://www.e-speak.net/
[1999/11/13]
Nov. 8, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications
Inc. has launched The Mike Network in Alberta. Clearnet notes
that capital investment in Alberta is ongoing and will reach
$170 million (Cdn) by the end of 2000. Current coverage includes
Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer. Fort McMurray, Camrose, Banff,
Lethbridge and Medicine Hat are expected to be open by the end
of 1999 with Dawson Creek, Peace River, Grande Prairie, High
Prairie, Slave Lake, Whitecourt, Cold Lake, Lloydminster, Hanna,
Drumheller, Drayton Valley, Milk River, Rocky Mountain House,
Hinton and other locations open by the end of 2000.
[1999/11/13]
Nov. 8, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
says that its Armada E700, M700, M300, E500 and V300 Series laptop
computer all feature Mini PCI connections with integrated RJ11 and
RJ45 ports.
[1999/11/13]
Nov. 8, 1999, Business Wire reports that 3Com Corporation commended
the PCI Special Interest Group for its approval of the Mini PCI
Specification. This specification is expected to be used mainly in
laptop computers and may eventually replace PC Cards.
[1999/11/13]
Nov. 3, 1999, VTech has begun shipping its Helio handheld computer.
The shipped version is priced at $179 US, with improved specifications.
The Helio now comes standard with 8 MB of RAM allowing 55 minutes of
recording time. Furthermore, three additional colors have been
announced -- translucent blue, translucent green and clear. The
five colors originally announced (metallic blue, pearlized pink,
bright yellow, cool gray and green with purple tint) are also still
available.
http://www.vtechinfo.com/
[1999/11/13]
Nov. 4, 1999, Mathew Ingram writes for The Globe And Mail that
Cisco System's announced plan to develop a standard for wireless
data transmission based on it s "vector OFDM" technology acquired
when it purchased Clarity Wirelesss (See previous item "Cisco
Plans To Develop Wireless Data Standard") might infringe Wi-LAN's
Patents for "wide band OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing). Cisco has been informed of the potential patent
overlap, but has not yet responded.
[1999/11/09]
Nov. 4, 1999, Business Wire reports that Semiconductor300
(a joint venture of Infineon Technologies and Motorola)
claim to have produced the first 256Mbit DRAM functional
chips on 300mm wafers.
http://www.sc300.de/
[1999/11/09]
Nov. 3, 1999, Reuters reports that "Packard Bell NEC will shut
most of its U.S. operation and remove the computer brand from
retail shelves in the United State." The brand will still be
used in Europe. [Packard Bell hasn't been in the laptop industry
lately, but any effect this will have on NEC portable computers
is currently unclear. I'll try to get more info from PBNEC in
Canada as soon as I can.]
[1999/11/09]
Nov. 3, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has announced that its Prosignia Notebook 150 can be ordered with
475MHz or 433MHz versions of AMD K6(R)-2 P Mobile processors.
Prices start at $2,299 US for the 475MHz version and $1,999 US
for the 433MHz version.
[1999/11/09]
Nov. 3, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommuncations
Inc. has announced that Microcell Connexions Inc. has signed a
wholesale agreement with Universal Paging Telecommunications (UPT)
making UPT a reseller of Microcell's services. UPT will sell PCS
services under the name "SiMPRO".
[1999/11/09]
Nov. 1, 1999, Duncan Martell reports that semiconductor
and large computer company stocks fell after a second major
earthquake, (6.9 on the Richter scale) rocked Taiwan.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 2, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has
announced the availability of "Group Calling" conference calls
with support for up to 32 participants. The new system
allows for full duplex support which allow all participants
to talk at the same time, instead of the common "simplex"
systems which only allow one person to speak at a time.
"The fee for Group Calling is $15 per group per month, billed
to the call initiator. Participants on the call will be
charged 20 cents per minute, including long distance. The
call initiator is not charged for airtime. Group Calling
is available in both French and English starting November 1,
1999.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 2, 1999, Amanda Stirpe writes for Computer Reseller News
that NEC Computer Systems Division of Packard Bell NEC has
announced three new laptop computers with built-in Mini PCI
ports.
Versa FX: 400MHz Intel Pentium III, 12.1" TFT display, 12GB
HD, 3.5 lbs., including external CD-ROM and floppy drives,
$2,499 US.
Versa VX: 500MHz Pentium III, 6.4 lbs., 12.1" SVGA TFT display
or 14.1" XGA TFT display, 6GB HD and port replicator priced
from $1,699 US to $3,599 US.
Versa LXi, (based on SX and LX) 500MHz Pentium III, built-in
floppy or 120MB SuperDisk drive, 15" XGA TFT screen, starting
at $2,999 US.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 2, 1999, Reuters reports that RealNetworks Inc. is issuing
a patch for its "RealJukebox" Software which will prevent it
from sending personal user information to it without properly
informing end users.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 2, 1999, Reuters reports that law suits have been filed
against Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., NEC Corp.,
Packard-Bell-NEC Electronics Inc. and eMachines Inc. for
selling computers with defective floppy drives, similar to
the claim made against Toshiba. Compaq has said it will
defend against the suit, HP, eMachines and PBNEC have said
that they have not seen the suit(s) and declined to comment
and NEC reps could not be reached.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 2, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Texas Instruments
and ARM have announced that the two companies will collaborate
on a combined DSP and Microcontroller platform for "next-
generation wireless information devices. The new dual-core
platform will combine a TI DSP and ARM's 32-bit RISC core.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 2, 1999, Business Wire reports that Silicon Wave Inc. has
demonstrated its integrated radio/modem component intended for
use in Bluetooth systems. Silicon Wave claims this is the first
Bluetooth "system-on-a-chip" device. Component prototypes
are currently shipping with production samples expected in
Q1, 2000 and full production in Q2, 2000.
http://www.siliconwave.com/
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 2, 1999, PR Newswire reports that PacketVideo Corporation has
demonstrated live streaming video to palm-size and handheld PC.
[There were no real details in this article.]
http://www.packetvideo.com/
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 1, 1999, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has announced its HP Jornada 690 handheld computer which
features 32MB RAM which is expected to benefit vertical markets.
HP Jornada 690: 133MHz CPU, 6.5" screen with 65,536 colours,
7.4" * 3.7" * 1.3", 1.1 lbs., built-in 56Kbps V. 90 modem,
Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition, added software,
available later in Nov. for $999 US.
According to HP, the Jornada 680 will continue to be available
at $899 US.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 1, 1999, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
its new DSP56690 baseband processor which is claimed to be
capable of supporting all major existing wireless standards
including CDMA, GSM, iDEN and TDMA. The processor includes
a Digital Signal Processor and an M-CORE(TM) microcontroller.
The 1.8 V. device features a DSP66600 core running at 100MHz
and an M-CORE M210 running at 50MHz. which communicate through
a shared RAM memory block. Limited samples are expected in
late Q4, 1999 with volume production in Q1, 2000.
[1999/11/06]
Nov. 1, 1999, Andy Pasztor and Peter Landers writes for The Wall
Street Journal that Toshiba Corp. has settled a class action
law suit for allegedly selling defective laptop computers for
$2.1 billion US. The allegation regards a suspected flaw in
the floppy disk controller chip which might randomly destroy
or corrupt data. The accusation regards a family of controller
chips by Intel and NEC, but have been "copied by chip makers
around the world."
[The implications of this law suit might be huge. I doubt
if there are many long time computer users who haven't lost
data due to a computer defect -- hardware or software.
Warranty limits are broadly drafted to limit the computer
makers exposure to discourage law suits like this. Since the
case was settled, the liability is still undecided, but the
court papers would make interesting reading.]
[1999/11/02]
Oct. 29, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Microsoft has
acquired Entropic Inc., a developer of software tools for
developing speech based applications.
[1999/11/02]
Oct. 29, 1999, Canadian Corporate News reports that Mobilink
Telecom has announced its ML2020 System-On-A-Chip GSM Baseband
ASIC for Wireless Internet Applications which is supported
by its "multi-slot GPRS" software to allow faster data
transfers. Samples of the chip will be available in early
2000 with volume production beginning in Q3. Also announced
is the ML2010 which adds voice recognition and recording.
Mobilink Telecom http://www.mobilinktel.com/
[1999/11/02]
Oct. 28, 1999, Maggie Fox writes for Reuters that IBM has
announced that it has developed a thin, flexible transistor
based on a "new class of materials" which can be laid
down onto plastic. According to Cherie Kagan, the process
is relatively low temperature and Kagan and her collegues
are working with phenethylammonium tin iodide and are
looking for other metals and organic compounds that will
work.
[1999/11/02]
Oct. 27, 1999, Therese Poletti writes for Reuters that the
Semiconductor Industry Association has estimated that 1999
industry growth is expected to be 15 percent at $144 billion
US, and forecasts 2000 sales to rise a further 21% to $174
billion US. Though DRAM is expected to continue strong growth
of 31% to $18 billion US and 39% in 2000 to $25 billion US,
Flash memory is expected to have ever stronger near term
increases with 63% growth to $4.1 billion US in 1999 and 36%
growth in 2000 to $5.5 billion US.
[1999/11/02]
Oct. 27, 1999, Business Wire reports that IBM and Nokia "will collaborate on a wide range of speech technology projects in the area of speech recognition, conversational systems, text to speech and speaker recognition . . . [and] will also share resources for long-term research and development, with a focus on VoiceXML, multi-modal Internet browsing, and other speech-enabled applications." Related to this agreement, Nokia has licensed IBM's ViaVoice Directory Dialer for automated directory assistance and call routing.
Also in this regard, IBM and seven other companies have
developed the "VoiceTIMES" audio specification for digital
recorders and speech recognition applications.
http://www.ibm.com/software/voicetimes/
[1999/11/02]
Oct. 26, 1999, Reuters reports that Motorola has bought a majority
share of Olicom A/S which owns Digianswer, a developer of Bluetooth
and HomeRF products. Digianswer will provide Motorola with its
Bluetooth technology and co-develop a HomeRF product.
[1999/11/02]
Oct. 26, 1999, Business Wire reports that Fujitsu has
introduced its new LifeBook C Series laptop computer with
a 450MHz Mobile AMD K6-2-P CPU. Features available
include 13.3" XGA TFT and 12.1" SVGA TFT screens, built-in
DVD and CD-ROM drives, and up to 9GB HD. Prices start
at $1,499 US, beginning in November.
http://www.FPCDirect.com/
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 26, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Lexicus Division of Motorola,
Inc. has announced the availability of its iTAP(TM) intelligent
keypad entry system which supports Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) and Short Messaging Service (SMS), to simplify text entry
for entering short messages. The system predicts the most
likely word entered from a dictionary of 40,000 set words and
allows users to add more words. The system is expected to be
included in Motorola's tri-band Timeport(TM) L7089 GSM phone this
quarter.
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 26, 1999, Business Wire reports that iBIZ Technology Corp.
has announced that its KeySync(TM) keyboard which works with
all 3Com Palm devices will be included in Pennwell Publishing's
"Software and Resources Guide for the Palm Computing(R) Platform."
http://www.ibizcorp.com/
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 26, 1999, Canada Newswire reports that Microcell Connexions
Inc. performed a live demonstation of 3rd generation wireless
capabilities including video-telephony, high-speed wireless Web
browsing and simultaneous transmission of video images, voice
and data at the 42nd GSM Association plenary.
http://www.gsm-pcs.org/
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 26, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc. has announced two new wireless data services in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Cantel(R) AT&T(TM) Interactive Messaging service allows users to send and receive messages worldwide via Internet e-mail, and Cantel AT&T AirPOS(TM) is a wireless point of sale service which allows on the spot sales transactions. The Interactive Messaging uses the RIM Inter@ctive Pager 950 which features an Intel 386 processor and QWERTY keyboard, over the Cantel AT&T Mobitex network. The AirPOS system is supported by the Royal Bank and Scotiabank, using the IVI Checkmate Elite 780 terminal or Schlumberger Magic 9000 terminal.
Oct. 26, 1999, Business Wire report that Sony Corporation has
announced that for a limited time, it will sell a special edition
of its "AIBO" ERS-111 entertainment robot. Orders will be taken
from Nov. 1 - 8, 1999 only for delivery in the December holiday
season, for customers in the U.S., Japan and Europe.
AIBO streaming videoclip http://www.medialink.com/medialink/99-483.shtml
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 26, Canada News Wire reports that DY 4 Systems, Inc. has been
awarded a $1 million (US?) order by General Dynamics Information
Systems for upgrading the US F-18E/F Fighter's Advanced Mission
Computer and Display (AMCD) System. Each upgrade uses 4 Single
Board PowerPC(TM) based DMV-179 computers. [I would call this
"extreme mobile technology."]
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 25, 1999, Business Wire reports that Gateway, Inc. has announced
the release of its Solo(R) 2550 laptop computer powered by an Intel
Mobile Pentium III for under $2,000 US.
http://www.gateway.com/
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 25, 1999, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced that its HP OmniBook 4150 and HP OmniBook 900 laptop computers
will use the new Intel Mobile Pentium(R) III processors and all HP
OmniBook 4150 and 900 laptop computers will use ATI RAGE Mobility(R)
graphics accelerators.
http://www.hp.com/omnibook/
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 25, 1999, Reuters reports that Cisco Systems Inc. has announced
that it will work with 10 high tech companies to establish a standard
method of wireless data transmission based on technology it has
acquired with its acquisition of Clarity Wireless, Inc. Cisco
says that it will make the technology available to its competitors
in order to establish the standard.
[1999/10/30]
Oct. 26, 1999, NEC has announced that it will use the Mobile Pentium III in three upcoming lines of laptop computers.
"In the coming weeks, NEC CSD plans to introduce three new lines of Versa notebook computers. Each system is designed to meet the varying degrees of functionality and portability that our customers require."
[Sorry, no time to summarize this article properly.
I'm running late.]
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 25, 1999, Compaq Canada has announced changes to its Armada
laptop computers. There are now five lines of Compaq Armada commercial
laptop portable computers:
Compaq Armada E500 takes over from Armada 1750 (Compaq's "all-in-one
design for 'workhorse' business needs").
Compaq Armada M300 ("ultraportable").
Compaq Armada V300 takes over from Armada 1500c (Compaq's "best value
notebook for the budget-conscious customer").
Compaq Armada E700, (Compaq's "powerhouse notebook for enterprise
customers.")
Compaq Armada M700 ("high performance, high mobility").
Compaq also announced price reductions on a number of its Armada
products.
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 25, 1999 Canada News Wire reports that IBM has announced changes in its ThinkPad lineup.
"The expanded lineup includes the new ThinkPad 600X with the ideal balance of performance and portability, the all-in-one ThinkPad 390X models that feature the new Intel Mobile Pentium III processor and finally, the popular ThinkPad 240 mini-notebook has been enhanced with a Mobile Intel Celeron processor at 366 MHz."
[Sorry, as mentioned above, I didn't have time to summarize this
article properly.]
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 22, 1999, Stephan Ohr writes for EE Times, that Frontier
Design claims to have a low cost ($1.40 US each in 500,000-piece
lots) speech recognition core with over 97% accuracy for control
applications.
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 21, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel
Mobile Communications Inc. (RCI) has announced its 1999 Q3
results (ending Sept. 30, 1999). Gross cellular activations
were 191,100, up 58,900 over 1998 Q3, and 99,000 more than
at the end of 1999 Q2, giving a total of 2,008,700 cellular
customers at Sept. 30, 1999. Roughly 775,000 customers were
on Digital PCS (about 38.6%) and 217,600 were using prepaid
"Pay as you Go" service. The average monthly churn rate
was 1.75% (down from 1.87% in Q3 1998). Average monthly
revenue per unit (ARPU) was $50, down $5 from 1999 Q3.
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 20, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications
Inc. and Sanyo Canada Inc. have announced that Clearnet will offer
the Sanyo SCP-4000 handset. Built exclusively for Clearnet, the
SCP-4000 is a dual mode handset with a blue "ClearGlo" backlight and
a unique navigation key, 133 g. weight, 3 hrs. talk time, ( up to
4.5 days standby), 300 entry phonebook, alarm clock, calculator, games
and vibrating "ringer", priced at $99.99 Cdn.
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 20, 1999, Business Wire reports that Sun showed its latest
developments for "Java 2 Platform Micro Edition" (J2ME) at the
PalmSource '99 Conference. [No delivery date has been given
yet.]
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 18, 1999, TRG has announced its new TRGPro handheld computer
based on the PalmOS platform but including a Compact Flash slot and
improved sound.
http://www.trgpro.com/
[1999/10/26]
Oct. 9, 1999, at Telecom '99, Siemens AG has announced plans for an
upcoming handheld computer called the "Siemens IC35 -- The Unifier".
Details were not provided, but Siemens expects to launch the product
in the coming year. [The picture shows a clamshell device roughly
the size of a Palm III with a monochrome grey scale display.
[Warning! This website crashed the Mac version of Netscape Navigator.
I don't know why, but it might not be accessible for some other
browsers as well. I eventually accessed it with a version of Navigator
on Windows 95.]
http://www.siemens.de/telecom99/
[1999/10/26]
Apparently, just laying out the facts isn't enough for some people so I'll take a moment to write what should be obvious. Prices for memory right now are substantially higher than a few months ago. How much higher? About 4X higher than mid-summer. Todays desk computer operating systems and applications take lots of memory. Furthermore, due to the Taiwan earthquake, there might be minor shortages of motherboards, and just about everything else. All these shortages will probably mean higher prices than one would otherwise have encountered.
Since the vast majority of people reading this already have computer equipment, the obvious conclusion is that while you might like to get something new, you probably don't really need it right now. So? Don't buy it. If you can put off purchases for say, 6 months, you'll probably save a bundle of money. In the meanwhile, buy some inlines and go skating.
Oh, many Palm computers and IBM WorkPad equivalents are made in the
US and Psion products (Series 5mx, etc.) are made in the UK. That
might help them a bit. I'm not so sure about that since various
components are made in the orient in general, and might come from
Taiwan, but those companies might be in a better position than some
with products that are made in Taiwan directly or near by. But
that's something you'll see in prices and availability, so don't
bother looking for it on the label -- look for the box on the shelf
and the price sticker.
[1999/10/23] revised [1999/10/26]
Oct. 21, 1999, The PalmOS 3.3 upgrade can now be downloaded from
3Com/Palm's website. Versions of the upgrade are available for
versions of the Palm handheld computers with Flash memory. Those
include the Palm III, Palm IIIx, Palm V, and version of older Palm
computers such as the "Palm Pilot Personal" and "Palm Pilot
Professional" which have been upgraded to the 3.0 (or later) software.
Palm Computing
downloads http://www.palm.com/custsupp/index.html
1999/10/23]
Oct. 19, 1999, Business Wire reports that Philips Semiconductors
has announced a telecommunications platform based on an ARM
processor and Philips "Reconfigurable Embedded DSP Architecture
Low Power/Low Cost (R.E.A.L.) Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
cores.
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 19, 1999, Canadian Corporate News reports that Wi-LAN has
announced that it has filed an intellectual property statement
with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) offering
to make its "Multicode Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum" (MCDSSS)
patented technology available for licensing "on fair, reasonable
and non-discriminatory terms." The ITU is meeting in Helsinki
starting Oct. 25 for final consideration of its 3G standard.
Current CDMA assigns a single code to each user.
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 19, 1999, Business Wire reports that Thomas & Betts
Corporation claims that its new battery allows laptops
to run up to 12 hours between charges, which it claims is
"one of the longest run times in the battery industry."
The battery uses the company's "PLI cell" technology which
allows the battery to be made in a variety of shapes.
[Note: The actual chemical or physical storage method
is not described in this article.]
http://www.tnb.com/
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 19, 1999, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor
Corporation (NS) and Communications Intelligence Corporation (CIC)
have announced that NS is licensing CIC's Jot(R) handwriting
recognition system for its Geode(TM) WEbPAD(TM) reference
design. The WebPAD is a "portable wireless personal access
device." The Geode WebPAD also currently features the QNX
operating system and Geode GXLV CPU, including x86 core, sound,
graphics, memory controller and PCI interface.
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 19, 1999, Business Wire reports that AKM Semiconductor
introduced its AK4550 2.5V 16-bit stereo Codec which is claimed
to consume 25mW of power. Appropriate for consumer applications
such as MP3 players, it costs $2.73 in quantities of 5,000 pieces.
http://www.akm.com/
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 18, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc.
has announced that it has commenced "Pay As You Go" wireless
services in Windsor and Brantford, Ontario. Each $25 Cdn. card
allows 60 minutes of calling in Canada (about $.042 per minute),
including long distance and calls between "Pay As You Go" users
are free for the receiving user.
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 18, 1999, Palm Computing, Inc. has announced availability
of "Palm(TM) HotSync(R) server software", the "Palm(TM) Ethernet
cradle," and an enterprise service and support program. The
Palm Hotsync server allows cross-platform sychronization by
supporting both Palm OS and Microsoft Windows CE based devices.
The "enterprise service and support program" includes help desk
training, on site service exchange and an extended warranty
program.
http://www.palm.com/enterprise/
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 17, 1999, Reuters reports that Motorola Inc. and
Philippe Kahn have invested a combined total of over $8 million
US in OpenGrid Inc. which is writing switching software for
wireless messaging. It is expected that this software will be
used by the wireless version of America Online's Instant
Messaging software.
[1999/10/23]
Oct. 15, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications
Inc. has announced that the i700plus Internet-ready digital wireless
phone is now available for use with the Mike service. Prices start
at $129 Cdn. According to Clearnet, later this year, Mike users will
be able to use its built in microbrowser to access the Internet or
intranet or extranet Web sites. Currently, the handset can be used
to directly connect to normal computer serial ports.
[1999/10/19]
Oct. 15, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has
announced four new "Digital North America" service plans. The
plans are DNA 200, DNA 400, DNA 800 and DNA 1600, replacing
DNA 350 and DNA 2000. The plans feature flat rate calling
throughout 95% of North America.
[1999/10/19]
Oct. 14, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Telecommunications
Inc. has announced that it has added 54,815 customers in Q3 1999,
for a total of 459,392 subscribers as of Sept. 30, 1999, compared
to 180,838 at on Sept. 30, 1998. Of the new subscribers in the
quarter, 22,322 (41%) use postpaid service. Post gurantee period
churn rate for the quarter was 2.4%, down from 2.8% for the same
quarter a year ago.
[1999/10/19]
Oct. 14, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel has
announced that it has applied to Industry Canada for a 2.5 GHz
Multipoint Communications Services (MCS) license for British
Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and the Eastern Ontario and
Outaouais Region.
[1999/10/19]
Oct. 14, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Penguin Books Ltd. and
Microsoft Corp. have announced that they will create and distribute
an eBook CD containing "a selection from Penguin Classics" and
the Microsoft(R) Reader.
[1999/10/19]
Oct. 13, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications Inc. has announced its 1999 Q3 subscriber numbers.
3 Months Ended 3 Months Ended
Sept. 30, 1999 Sept. 30, 1998
Digital
- Net Subscriber
additions 56,205 48,148
- total subscribers
end of period 464,708 242,703
- churn per month
(after 30 day
guarantee) 1.81% 1.61%
Mike
- Net Subscriber
additions 23,505 13,650
- total subscribers
end of period 176,335 87,743
- churn per month
(after 30 day
guarantee) 1.59% 1.33%
PCS
- Net Subscriber
additions 32,700 34,498
- total subscribers
end of period 288,373 154,960
- churn per month
(after 30 day
guarantee) 1.95% 1.76%
Analogue SMR net
subscriber additions (4,375) (5,263)
Total Net Subscriber
additions 51,830 42,885
[1999/10/19]
Oct. 13, 1999, Reuters reports that Motorola Inc. and America
Online Inc have announced that they will develop the AOL Instant
Messenger software for Motorola's wireless devices such as the
Timeport P1088 smart phone and the Timeport P930 two-way pager.
[1999/10/19]
Oct. 13, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Network Associates Inc.'s NAI Labs "Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team" (AVERT) has assessed the Melissa.U and Melissa.V viruses as "medium risk." They spread rapidly via E-Mail and delete data. They arrive via E-Mail. The viruses are in infected "Word" attachments. For Melissa.U, the title is "pictures" and the body will say "what's up?" The NORMAL.DOT file will be infected. A MAPI email client is invoked and mail is sent to the first 4 email addresses (can include distribution lists). Then the following files are deleted: c:\command.com, c:\io.sys, d:\command.com, d:\io.sys, d:\Ntdetect.com, c:\Suhdlog.dat, and d:\Suhdlog.dat. This renders the system inoperable.
For Melissa.V the title will be "My Pictures" and the body will be
blank. The MAPI client sends infected E-Mail to the first 40
addresses in the Address Book. Then directories and files are deleted
with the following letters in this order: M, N, O, P, Q, S, F, I,
X, Z, H, L.
http://www.nai.com/
http://www.McAfee.com/
[1999/10/19]
This month's issue of the computer paper is focused on handheld
technology and the Internet. I have two articles on Psion products,
there is a large article comparing a number of handheld computers,
the Handspring Visor and the Psion Revo are both mentioned, there is
a unique long term report on the Sharp Mobilon HC-4500, and more.
November Issue of Computer Paper: http://www.tcp.ca/1999/9911/toc/
My first article for the issue is a brief report on the newly announced Psion "netBook".
netBook announcement: http://www.tcp.ca/1999/9911/handheld/psion/psion.html
My second article is a review of the Psion Series 5mx. The final
edit has some problems, but unlike the "Palm v. daVinci" article
I mentioned earlier, I currently don't feel the problems are
sufficient for me to request a correction. However, I'll comment
on some of the more noticeable issues.
Psion Series 5mx Review:
http://www.tcp.ca/1999/9911/handheld/psion5mx/psion5mx.html
Article Title On Web Page: "Survivor of pocket World War I"
"Psion Series 5mx a handheld computer without peer"
Comment: I didn't really like my original title, which was was
"Psion Series 5mx: Peerless Survivor of Pocket World War I".
If I'd had more time I probably would have changed it. The magazine
dropped the "Survivor of Pocket World War I" completely, and I think
that was the best version.
Article: "Basic specifications
Size: 17 x 9 x 2.3 cm (6.63 x 3.51 x 0.9 in.)"
Comment: I measured the thickness of the Series 5mx as 26.5 mm.
The difference is due to the rubber feet, which Psion didn't include.
As far as I'm concerned, these measurements are understood to mean
"overall" dimensions, not "average thickness." An independent
magazine should publish what the reader wants, not what the
manufacturers PR department wants.
Article: "Batteries: two AA, or one CR-2032"
Comment: The Series 5mx uses 2 AA main batteries and 1 CR-2032 as a
backup battery. I suppose, in truth you really could use even the 1
CR-2032 alone, just to hold data for a while, so it's not technically
an incorrect statement, but. . . .
Article: "Infrared beaming
Using the Series 5mx's infrared feature, I transferred files to and
from a Palm IIIx, an NEC MP-400, and a Compaq C Series 2010c. So while
transfers of simple text files to and from the Palm IIIx all failed, I
succeeded in beaming individual Contact items in both directions."
Comment: This one is partly my fault. What I originally wrote was that
"Beaming cross-platform was tested to and from a Palm IIIx and Windows
CE 2.0 in an NEC MP-400 and a Compaq C Series 2010c. The Series 5mx
supports vCard, vCalendar, IrOrbex standards. So while transfers of simple
text files all failed, using the latest Palm IIIx, I succeeded in beaming
individual Contact items in both directions." Aside from the obvious
grammar error in the 2nd sentence, I thought I'd said clearly enough that
the test was conducted with the various mentioned computers -- not that
the test was successful. In fact, as the 3rd sentence points out, the
transfers of simple text files all failed. The poor writing was a result
of my trying to shorten the report which originally included a list of
all the transfer attempts in a table with the word "failed" repeated for
each attempt. I decided the table was a waste of space. Unfortunately,
I did a bad job of editing, and the copy editor was justifiably confused.
This raises an interesting point about beaming: Although you can't directly beam a simple text file between a Series 5mx an a Palm IIIx, you *can* copy/paste a short text note into a text attachment for a "Contact" or "agenda" item and then beam it between the devices. There is probably a size limit to this, but you have people with whom you want to share short messages with, you could keep a "Contact" item named "beaming dummy" handy for such transfers.
Display response test Psion Psion Compaq NEC
Series 5mx Series 5 C-Series MP-400
2010
HTML page render time
(sec.): 44.8 77.0 15.8 42.6
JPEG render time
(sec.): 381.2 NA 9.2 15.5
Notes:
Psion
Series 5mx Palm IIIx
File size (KB) 311 124
6 char., 1 found
(sec.) 3.4 3.1
6 char., 8 found
(sec.) 3.8 3.7
4 char., 16 found
(sec.) 4.2 3.8
Notes:
Oct. 12, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has
announced that Bell Mobility Mobile Browser-enabled Digital
PCS users will have access it financial information from
iMoney "this week."
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 12, 1999, Eric Auchard writes for Reuters that Dell Computer
Corp. has bought $200 million US in convertible bonds from Samsung
Electronics as part of a 5 year supply deal worth about $8.5
billion US. Samsung will use the money to increase LCD production.
The deal is non-exclusive, but Dell expects preferential treatment.
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 12, 1999, Associated Press reported that Nokia was rumoured
to be in talks to license 3Com's Palm Computing software for portable
phones. [In fact, as I write this, an announcement has been made,
but the situation is not quite the correct. The official announcement
was that PalmOS and Symbian EPOC would both be used in these device.
There is a lot about this plan that has not been made clear yet.]
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 11, 1999, Jack Robertson writes for Electronic Buyers' News
that DRAM is now essentially "sold out" for 1999 Q4 and shortages
of all types of RAM are being predicted for Q1 of 2000.
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 11, 1999, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced its
"Aero GSM Connectivity Suite" which allows a Compaq Aero palm-size
PC to be used with a GSM mobile phone to access Internet-based data.
The kit supports "Internet and email, . . . the Web . . . WAP
send and receive faxes and SMS messages."
http://vcmproapp04.compaq.com/telecom99/press.html
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 11, 1999, IBM and Nokia announced a global partnership to
develop and market WAP systems. IBM will market and distribute
Nokia WAP Server software on PC servers and license Nokia core
WAP technology for integration with other IBM server platforms.
http://www.wapforum.org/
http://www.nokia.com/corporate/wap/
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 11, 1999, Business Wire reports that according to Dataquest's
"1998 Microcontroller Market Share and Unit Shipments" report,
Motorola is still the leader in microcontrollers with top position
in four categories: "microcontroller revenue market share" (18%),
revenue from 8-bit microcontrollers" (25.2%), "unit shipment of
microcontrollers" (15.5%), and "unit shipment of 8-bit
microcontrollers" (22.6%). Motorola's 1998 worldwide semiconductor
sales were $7.3 billion US.
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 11, 1999, Guy Middleton writes for TechWeb that Puma Technology
has announced plans to provide a Web-based synchronization service
based on its proprietary Intellisync technology early next year.
The service will allow users to synchronize data between handheld
computers, phones and pagers.
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 10, 1999, Associated Press reports that according to government and business leaders speaking at the United Nations sponsored Telecom 99, "The boom of the Internet will be further fueled by newer, cheaper browsing devices. . . [and] industry investments that will greatly expand transmission capacity." According to Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM, "there will be 600 million PCs in the world by 2003, but . . . they would be joined by more than 2 billion handheld devices and many billions of card, TVs, tools, appliances and vending machines all on the internet."
Announcements included Nokia Corp.'s WAP based 7110 handset which
should be available to some consumers in Europe within the next
few weeks and in the US next year, Alcatel who will market a WAP
mobile phone in "mid-October".
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 9, 1999, Mark Hachman writes for Electronic Buyers News,
Oct. 4, 1999, that Microprocessor Forum was expected to be dominated
by powerful embedded processors, and particularly 64-bit processors
by Hitachi Ltd. and ST Microelectronics sharing the SH-5, and by
MIPS TEchnologies Inc. with its MIPS64 5Kc. Also expected were
IBM Microelectronics, expected to show its PowerPC 440 (32-bit core)
and National Semiconductor Corp. describing its SC1400 version of
its Geode. Hitachi and ST Microelectronics will be producing the
SH-5 using 0.15-micron standard CMOS process, in the 2nd half of 2000.
The core is rated at 400MHz (scaleable to 650MHz), with 604 Dhrystone
2.1 mips, consuming less than 1 W at 1.5V. A key addition to SH-5
will be a set of multimedia instructions. SH-4 will also be made
using this process. The MIPS 64 5Kc claims 1,200 mips/W performance.
300 - 375 MHz versions are expected by the end of this year. IBM's
440 will use IBM's 0.18-micron copper-interconnect process. The
"dual-issue" seven-stage pipeline will achieve around 400 - 555-MHz
speeds, yielding around 1,000 Dhrystone 2.1 mips at 555MHz.
[1999/10/16]
Oct. 8, 1999, Guy Middleton writes for TechWeb that Philips has
announced that it is planning to cease production of Windows CE
handheld computers due to poor sales. Philips has recently
announced that it will licence Phone.com's WAP browser, but has
not said what OS it will run on.
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 8, 1999, Jack Robertson writes For Electronic Buyers' News
that according to DisplaySearch, LCD manufacturers will only meet
about 86% of demand for TFT-LCD screens for laptop computers this
year. Furthermore, the shortage is expect to continue into 2000
which will result in only 93% of demand being filled. However,
an oversupply condition is expected in 2001.
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 7, 1999, Business Wire reports that Central Command and
Kaspersky Lab have announced the discovery of a Windows NT virus
called "WinNT.Infis" which is the first computer virus found
"in-the-wild" that integrates into the highest security level
of the Windows NT operating system. The virus acts as a
"Windows NT driver" and is file infecting. It attacks Windows
NT 4.0 with Service Packs 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 installed, but not
Windows 95, 98, 2000 or other versions of Windows NT. Signs
of the virus are the file "INF.SYS" in "/WinNT/System32/Drivers"
and the inability to run some popular applications such as
MSPAINT.EXE, CALC.EXE and CDPLAYER.EXE. Detection and removal
has been added to AntiViral Toolkit Pro (AVP).
http://www.avp.com/
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 7, 1999, Business Wire reports that Quicknet Technologies, Inc.
has announced its Internet PhoneCARD Type II PCMCIA card with hardware
compression for full duplex voice over IP. The card requires a
Pentium 133MHz or faster CPU, and Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4 or
Linux OS. It will be available in November for $159.95 US.
http://www.quicknet.net/
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 7, 1999, Business Wire reports that IBM has introduced its new Travelstar E external HD which uses a standard PC-Card interface and gives 10GB. IBM claims that the external drive is more rugged than standard internal drives. Available later this month for the US market, the prices are $449 US for 8GB or $549 US for 10GB.
IBM also announced a new record for storage density with its
achieving 35.3 billion bits per square inch on a magnetic HD.
http://www.ibm.com/harddrive/
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 7, 1999, Marguerite Nugent writes for Reuters that BP Amoco Plc., Exxon Corp. and Chevron Corp. have said that they will put up signs warning of the possibility of starting fires if wireless phones are used near gas pumps. The warnings have been contained in the phone manuals for years, and it is now an issue in Europe.
For the record, I have had shocks from the antenna of my Sony
CDMA handset. I expect this is relatively rare, but over time, I
also expect that most people will experience them. While there has
never been an instance of a fire confirmed to have been caused by
a cell phone, a spark is a spark, and if you understand the laws
of probability, and gaseous solutions, you will know that it is
possible that such a fire might occur, and in time, it will probably
eventually occur. It's not as dangerous as lighting a cigarette
around a gas pump, but then again, I've seen people who do that as
well. So while some people will make fun of the situation, I think
the gas station companies are doing the right thing.
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 7, 1999, Canadian Corporate News reports that Webraska Mobile
Technologies SA has announced that it has been awarded a Patent
for "an interactive process for use as a nagivational aid and
device for its implimentation." According to the article, "the
invention relates to a system to be used as a navigation aid
comprising a mobile terminal wirelessly linked to a centralised
server, and mroe specifically to the improvements required to
convert a mobile phone into a complete and precise navigational
aid system."
http://www.webraska.com/press/99-0ct-06-IbDN-eng.html
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 7, 1999, Canadian Corporate News reports that Ericsson Canada,
Microcell Connexions and Telesystems International Wireless (TIW)
claim to have used Ericsson's WCDMA 3rd generation wireless system
for a multimedia conversation.
http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom/
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 6, 1999, BCE Emergis reports that Bell Mobility has added the
ability to access E-Mail from standard POP3 accounts through its
"Mobile Browser" service. The "Mobile Browser" service was originally
announced in May 1999, providing Web type content through "sympatico.ca"
or other "wireless enabled" sites. Handsets currently supported
include Qualcomm QCP2700 or QCP2700F. The Nokia 6165 and Neopoint will
also be "Mobile Browser-enabled" in the future. There is no monthly
service charge, but customers are charged $0.15/min., billed by the
second. [It is unclear in the article whether this means that the
charge mentioned is on top of the normal contract fees. Also, although
it does not say so in this article, the "Mobile Browser" service was
a WAP service.]
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 6, 1999, Business Wire reports that Motorola, Inc. has
introducted its "Mobile Internet Exchange(TM) (MIX) communications
platform by which Motorola claims, "mobile consumers can obtain
necessary information anywhere via the Internet." According to
Maria Martinez, general manager and vice president, Motorola Internet
and Connectivity Solutions Division (ICSD) "Motorola expects that
by 2005, one billion people will be using the Internet and accessing
it from wireless connections."
http://www.Motorola-MIX.com/
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 6, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Rogers Cantel Inc.
has announced that it has signed over 50,000 subscriptions for
Cantel AT&T Pay As You Go service since its July introduction.
The company has announced a limited time promotion to expand
on this. For every new subscriber referred, Cantel will give
a current user $25 of free airtime.
[1999/10/12]
Oct. 4, 1999, Psion has launched its new pocket sized handheld
computer the "Revo". Based on a 36MHz ARM 170 RISC core
and Symbian EPOC Release 5 software, the Revo costs $399 US.
http://www.psionusa.com/
http://www.psion.com/revo/
[1999/10/09]
Oct. 5, 1999, Business Wire reports that according to National
Semiconductor Corporation, VTech Industries two new information
appliances, the "VTech e-Mail Express(TM)" and "e-Mail PostBox(TM)"
both use the National(R) Geode(TM) NSC1028 16 bit RISC processor.
The Express is hand holdable and weighs 7 oz. and costs $79.99 US.
The PostBox features a "full size" keyboard and costs $99.99 US.
VTech also provides email services for these devices at $10.00 US
per month.
http://vtechworld.com/
[1999/10/09]
Oct. 5, 1999, Business Wire reports that AMD has unveiled its
plans for coming 64-bit processors. Instead of using the Intel
Merced instruction set model AMD has announced a new instruction
set which will be an extension of the current "x86" instruction
set, including the current instructions. The eighth generation
processor is currently code named "Sledgehammer." AMD also
announced work on a new chip-to-chip system buss called Lightning
Data Transport (LDT) which will support speeds up to 6.4 GB/sec.,
far advanced over current interconnects which reach up to 266
MB/sec.
http://www.amd.com/
[1999/10/09]
Oct. 5, 1999, Scott Tiazkun writes for Computer Reseller News that
Seibel Systems has announced that it will release a series of
sales support applications for Windows CE. The first part is,
"Siebel Sales Handheld software". Information will synchronize
with major database systems. [It is unclear whether this software
is immediately available, but the cost is $1,000 US.]
[1999/10/09]
Oct. 4, 1999, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has introduced its first "retail" laptop Windows computer, the
"HP Pavilion Notebook PC." The distinction between a "retail"
product and a "business" product is mainly a question to whom
HP will sell it and to a lesser extent, what comes with it as
a standard part of the package. There is a set of included software
packages that HP seems to believe would be of general interest
(including Internet software, Quicken BASIC 99, Microsoft Money 99,
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia 99, Microsoft Works, Rand McNally
Route Planner and Outlook Express).
HP Pavilion notebook PC: Intel(R) Celeron(TM) 433MHz CPU, 4GB HD,
32MB SDRAM, Silicon Motion Lynx video graphics accelerator, 12.1"
HPA display, 24X CD-ROM drive, 56K v.90 modem, estimated street
price $1,399 US.
[1999/10/09]
Oct. 4, 1999, Business Wire reports that Evolv Adaptive
Technology has released a trial version of its point of sale
software for the PalmOS devices called "Skipjack Runabout".
http://www.skipjackic.com/palm/
[1999/10/09]
Oct. 2, 1999, Responsive Database Services reports that according
to Network World, Sept. 27, 1999, IBM is developing software that
reduces data transmissions on the internet. [This is a filtering
system which will, for example reduce a colour JPEG image to a
monochrome, reducing the file size.]
[1999/10/09]
Sorry for the delay of this posting, but I was actually waiting
for another announcement which has not arrived. Next time. . . .
[1999/10/06]
Oct. 4, 1999, - 3Com Canada Inc. has announced immediate availability
its new Palm Vx.
Palm Vx: 8MB of memory, faster HotSync synchronization speed, synchronize
data between the product's infrared port and the infrared port on a
desktop or laptop computer, estimated street price of $679 Cdn.
3Com has also announced "The Palm Colour Shades Kit," a new accessory kit for its Palm III family devices which includes flip covers, in translucent lime, blue and aqua, plus three black stylii and is available at retail outlets for $19.95 Cdn.
3Com has also announced the following estimated street prices:
Palm V $579 Cdn (down from $679), Palm IIIx $449 Cdn (down from $549 Cdn),
and the Palm IIIe $279 (down from $329 Cdn).
[1999/10/04]
Oct. 4, 1999, 3Com has announced Palm VII availability across the
continental US. The Palm VII also now features a new "expanded
monthly service plan" for heavy users and third-party applications
allowing users to connect to a variety of e-mail systems via their
Palm VII organizers. 3Com also has announced that the Palm VII will
be launched in Canada in 2000 and is expected to retail for less
$900 Cdn.
[1999/10/06]
Oct. 1, 1999, Associated Press reports that Dell has added
Tahoe Blue and Storm Gray options for Inspiron laptop computers.
[1999/10/04]
Oct. 1, 1999, Business Wire reports that according to Telecompetition
Inc., Personal Communication Services (PCS) mid year "net additions"
surpassed net additions for cellular providers for the first time.
The company projects that by the end of 1999, PCS will hold 23% of
the 96 million US wireless subscribers.
[1999/10/04]
Oct. 1, 1999, Yoshiko Hara writes for EE Times that Eastman Kodak
and Sanyo Electric have jointly developed a 2.4" 852 * 222 pixel
colour active-matrix organic LED display panel. Sanyo is not
planning volume production till 2001. The companies have also
shown a prototype of a 1.3" colour passive organic LED which will
be marketed in 2000. Sanyo expects sales for the passive display
to be in the cellular telephone market.
[1999/10/04]
Sept. 30, 1999, Reuters reports that IBM has announced coloured covers for the "ThinkPad i" series laptop computers. Retailing at $29.99 US, the covers include Mars red metallic, Terra green metallic, Andromeda, and Sirius red and Polaris blue.
IBM also announced illuminated keyboards for ThinkPad 1460 and 1480
for low light usage.
[1999/10/04]
Sept. 30, 1999, Business Wire reports that Hewlett-Packard Company
has announced a price reduction for its HP CD-Writer Plus M820e
portable "re-writable" drive which writes at 4x and reads at 20x.
Estimated street price is $399 US down from $599 US.
[1999/10/04]
Sept. 29, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Clearnet Communications
Inc. has announced enhancements to its wireless PCS service plans.
For an added $5 per month users will now have an extra 100 minutes
per month. All previously included features are unchanged.
[1999/10/04]
Sept. 28, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Microcell Solutions Inc. has announced changes to its prepaid Fidomatic(TM) PCS service. As a "promotion", beginning Oct. 1, 1999, a $50 (Cdn) prepaid airtime voucher will be worth 225 minutes instead of 142 minutes and a $25 (Cdn) prepaid airtime voucher will be worth 100 minutes instead of 71 minutes. This promotion will run to Dec. 31, 1999 or while voucher supplies last. Vouchers are valid for 60 days.
New to the Fidomatic offering is a "pay-per-use Personal Voice Messaging" option. Message (up to one minute in length) in the voice mailbox will be charged at the regular airtime rate plus $0.15/min. to retrieve the message. Numeric messaging is also included. Fidomatic also includes Call Waiting, Call Forwarding and airtime calculated to the minute.
A starter package costs $125 including a Mitsubishi handset ($50),
a smart card ($25) and a $50 prepaid airtime voucher. According to
Microcell, the battery allows up to 5 hours of talk time.
[1999/10/02]
Sept. 28, 1999, Business Wire report that Hewlett-Packard Company has
announced it Chai Appliance Platform which includes ChaiVM 4.0,
"a scalable virtual machine for Java(TM) applications" which has
new features for improved "real-time" performance.
[1999/10/02]
Sept. 28, 1999, Stuart Glascock writes for TechWeb that Traveling
Software has changed its name to LapLink.com and released its new
"LapLink 2000". The new product is available now for $169.00 US
for Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and NT systems. New features include
"dual-level encryption, lock-out protection, case-sensitive
passwords, and folder-level security." Also supported is concurrent
voice-over IP for two way voice connection simultaneously with
computer connection over a single telephone line.
[1999/10/02]
Sept. 27, 1999, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has announced two new Presario laptop computers:
Presario 1800T, Intel Celeron 466MHz CPU, 6X-DVD drive, 18GB HD
starting at $1,999 US.
Presario1600s, 14.1" TFT display, AMDK-2 400MHz (up to 475MHz optional)
starting at $1,799 US.
[1999/10/02]
Sept. 27, 1999, Business Wire reports that National Semiconductor
and QNX Software Systems have announced an alliance for pursuing
the information appliance market. They intend to co-develop a
series of reference platforms. Their first product, the WebPAD
SDK is available now in limited quantities.
http://www.national.com/webpad/
[1999/10/02]
Sept. 25, 1999, Responsive Database Services reports that Loring
Wirbel wrote for Electronic Engineering Times, Sept. 20, 1999,
that DSP Communications Inc. would show its "sixth generation"
CDMA chipset at the New Orleans PCS show. The D6011 implements
the full Phase One 1XRTT standards for cdma2000. It uses
an ARM7TDMI RISC core and DSP Communications' Teak DSP core.
[1999/09/28]
Sept. 24, 1999, George Leopold and Rick Merritt write for
Semiconductor Business News that the damage caused by the
Taiwan earthquake is being estimated at $300 million US.
AMD is being affected because boards using its new Athlon
chip are being delayed. GVC and Microstar have halted
production of the Athlon boards and First International
Computer is running at 60% capacity, leaving FIC as the
only full capacity producer. According to the article,
Taiwan produces 13 - 15% of the world's semiconductors,
80% of PC motherboards, 2/3rds of the wafers (silicon)
and 5 - 6% of the DRAM. The articles says that "[A]ccording
to Taiwan's Institute of Information Industry, total hardware
production topped $33 billion [US] in 1998."
[1999/09/28]
Sept. 23, 1999, Business Wire reports that Motorola has introduced
its new V700 word message pager is able to receive full text
messages from the Internet or from E-Mail servers. The V700 is
available in FLEX(R) and POCSAG protocol versions. and will cost
about $150 US and is available through paging service providers.
[1999/09/28]
Sept. 22, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has announced
a series of wireless communications products they call the
"Motorola Timeport collection. Included are digital wireless
phones P8160 and P8167 which feature internet capabilities,
P8097 which is a dual band/dual mode TDMO 800/1900 and AMPS
handset, the Timeport Clip-On Organizer, Timeport P730 Information
Pager text pager which can receive personal pages and information
services, P730 graphics pager, Timeport P930 Two-Way pager.
[1999/09/28]
Sept. 22, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Motorola has announced
its new "TalkAbout(R)" series of wireless communications products
which includes wireless phones, pagers and two-way radios. The
newest product is the T289 two-way radio which operates on the
"Family Radio Service" frequency, having a range of up to two
miles depending on conditions.
[1999/0928]
Sept. 21, 1999, Business Wire reports that Motorola has announced
that beginning in Q1, 2000, "iDEN(R) plus" series telephone handsets
introduced in 1999, will be upgradeable for new features by downloading
programs from the internet to a local PC and then installing the
programs from the PC into the handset. Motorola has also introduced
an SDK to help develop software to interface iDEN handsets with
Palm(TM) connected organizers, Windows CE devices and PCs.
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 21, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that Bell Mobility has
launched its new "SOLO" prepaid package. Prices start at $99 Cdn.
The package contains one of three possible phones, a T-shirt,
battery, charger, a prepaid start-up card with 20 min. of talk
time and a manual. The phones are flip phones with vibrating
alert, belt clip and headset. The phones are Motorola DPC650e
for $99, Motorola StarTAC 3000 for $179 or Nokia 282 for $229.
Talk time costs $0.35 per minute for local calls and and added
$0.35 per minute for long distance calls to Canada and the
United States.
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 21, 1999, PR Newswire reports that EMUmail's Hobomail.com
site can be used by Palm VII users as a proxy to access POP3 based
email accounts. The service is provided for free, but will not
be acceptable for those who need strict security. For those
people who want or need strict security, the HoboServer system
is available for $1,250 US and is available for Windows NT or
Unix systems.
http://www.hobomail.com/
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 21, 1999, PR Newswire reports that the Open eBook (OEB)
Authoring Group has released the final version of Open eBook
Publication Structure 1.0.
http://www.openebook.org/
also see:
The Electronic Book '99 Conference http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/ebook99/
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 21, 1999, Canadian Corporate News reports that SnapTrack, Inc. has
announced that it has proven by independently audited tests that
its Enhanced GPS(TM) systems are capable of meeting US FCC
"wireles public safety" requirements.
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 20, 1999, Mark Hachman and Andrew MacLellan writes for
Electronic Buyers' News that early reports from the earthquake
in Taiwan appear to show that no serious harm was done to
"brick and mortar" facilities of Taiwan's semiconductor industry
but electrical outages [and, one expects, human injury] may
cause problems.
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 20, 1999, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computer
Corporation has introduced its new Aero(R) 1530 palm-size handheld
Windows CE based computer.
Aero 1530: 16 levels grey display, 12.7mm (0.5") thick, less than
5 oz., 14 hrs. use Lithium-Ion battery, QMenu, QUtilities and
File Explorer software, available immediately at $299 US including
docking cradle.
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 20, 1999, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has introduced its new Aero(R) 2180 colour palm-size computer.
Aero 2180: 64K colours reflective TFT display, 24MB memory, QMenu,
QUtilities, File Explorer software, available immediately at $449 US with
docking cradle.
Compaq has also announced price reductions for the Aero 2110 ($369 US
down from $399 US) and the Aero 2150 ($399 US down from $499 US).
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 20, 1999, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced its new
ThinkPad 390X portable computer that features a 15" LCD display,
a user upgradeable "all in one" design and a low price of $1,999 US.
Processors available are the Intel(R) Mobile Pentium(R) II 400MHz
or Intel Mobile Celeron(TM) at 400MHz.
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 20, 1999, Junko Yoshida writes for EE Times that a start-up
company, Mainbrace is launching a "ready - to - manufacture"
Windows CE based Portable Data Terminal (PDT) platform called
the FastTrack PDT. According to Thomas Wong, president of
Mainbrace "OEMs can put a new embedded system on their production
line within eight to 12 weeks." Based on an ARM720 32-bit RISC
CPU and a 320 * 240 monochrome display with touchscreen, the
product is already found its first customer, Askey International
which is developing its palm-size PC product "MobileLink" based
on this platform.
[1999/09/25]
Sept. 17, 1999, Associated Press reports that the French Finance
Minister has said that the French antitrust, fraud and market
surveillance agencies are investigating complaints against business
practices of Microsoft Corp. following complaints from French
consumers who say they don't want to be forced to buy Microsoft
Windows every time they buy a computer.
[1999/09/21]
Sept. 16, 1999, Madeleine Acey writes for TechWeb that at Sun's ".com conference and exhibition" the major theme was "[a] different Internet-linked appliance for every occasion is coming in the near future. . . ."
[I'm going to take a moment to comment about what Ms. Acey felt came out of the conference. First, this site attempts to integrate the developments in the real world and put them in perspective by applying my own theories of optimization. Over the years I have stated principles such as "one size doesn't fit all" and the goal of "having information, where you want it, when you want it, in a form you want it, at an acceptable cost." I have never believed that the Internet is necessarily the best approach, nor do I believe that "mobile IT" is necessarily the best approach. All possibilities should be explored. Anyway, let's look at this:According to a panel chaired by John Gage, "[t]he future fo personal computing is not about choosing between a PC or a thin Internet Appliance, but between services at different times and locations for different needs and network connectivity." I disagree. This is a narrow minded approach. See above comment re. "information, where you want it. . . ."
Per Juha Christensen of Symbian, "[c]ommon protocols and cheap development technology will reach a billion handheld networked devices in use by 2003." Maybe true. I give out numbers like this, assuming I feel they are reasonably believable, because readers like them and businesses need them for planning. Personally I don't care about them. I care about what *I* buy and find useful.
Per Geoffrey Baehr "What will really drive this year is protocols . . . . People have realized it's an IP world." He also mentions Bluetooth as a cheap network. Well this is sort of right and wrong. Protocols are important, but end users really care about what protocol is used yet. End users care about services and products that work -- that do what they want. What the end user will want is "information, where you want it, . . . ."
Per Christensen of Symbian on multiple devices "[y]ou might see people using a small device they can stick in their jeans for going out to dinner and a bigger one for taking notes in meetings. This is not a one-size-fits-all market." Well, I clearly agree with that.
Per Daryl Plummer refering to a specific example he gave, "[t]he device would be less interesting to the user than the service." I think that's how most people look at all this technology. [1999/09/18]
Sept. 15, 1999, Larry Greenemeier writes for Information Week that
IBM's ThinkPad 600E has become the first mobile computer certified
by Red Hat Software to run Red Hat Linux 6.0. According to Tim
Eades, customer-segment marketing manager for the worldwide ThinkPad
brand, IBM plans further announcements for more versions of Linux
(including Caldera Systems, TurboLinux and SuSe) and on more ThinkPad
models.
[1999/09/21]
Sept. 15, 1999, Business Wire reports that Compaq Computer Corporation
has introduced its Presario 300 Series portable computer, which the
article calls an "Internet mini-notebook PC". Compaq also announced
a "USB home phoneline networking adapter for notebooks enabling
consumers to network Presario notebooks and desktops throughout the
home."
Presario 300 Series: Intel Mobile Celeron CPU, 64MB RAM, 56Kbps
modem, Compaq Internet Zone, 3.08 lbs., prices start at $2,199 US.
[1999/09/21]
Sept. 15, 1999, Business Wire reports that Compaq has announced the
"HomeFree Phoneline USB network adapter" by Diamond Multimedia.
Based on the HomePNA network standard it is priced at $69.95 and
intended for use with Presario portable computers.
[1999/09/21]
The October 1999 issue of "The Computer Paper" published by Canada Computer Paper Inc. has my article "Palm files lawsuits to protect turf." This article can be found at:
http://www.tcp.ca/1999/9910/news/palm/palm.htmlUnfortunately, there was a serious problem with the final copy edit of the article. In the printed version and the current version on the Website the 2nd last paragraph says:
"Even though sales of the daVinci are temporarily blocked, Palm is facing challenges by several new and improved Windows CE devices. Among them are the eDiary by FUGA Corp. (http://www.fuga.com), the Helio by VTech Information (http://www.vtechinfo.com/) and the OSPro by Oregon Scientific (http://www.oregonscientific/)."What I originally wrote was:
"Even if the daVinci is not available for September Palm will face challenges by new competitors and improved Windows CE devices. Among the new competitors are the 'eDiary' by FUGA Corporation, the 'Helio' by VTech Information and the "OSPro" by Oregon Scientific."
Whomever did the copy edit missed the significance of this paragraph completely and wrote a factually wrong version. The significance of the paragraph is that none of the products mentioned were Windows CE. This shows that these are a broad, expanding range of competitors with new software bases, arguably more competitive in this market against Palm than Windows CE was. We are looking at a growing market undergoing an expansion something like the original 8-bit home computer market of the early '80s rather than a consolidating market.
I have requested the following changes to the Web version of the article:
Since I'm on the topic of editing, some of you might be
interested in knowing how much editing is actually done to
published articles. It varies. It can depend on the style of
the writer and how the editors feel that style fits with the
style of the magazine. Sometimes it is simply a matter of copy
length. Some articles are published as written. In general,
I don't have a problem with the final edited versions of my
articles. The above is a very rare case where the edit
contradicts a fact and the fact was an important one. I've
had many changes to my articles which I frankly don't care much
about at all, even if they have to do with content. Take the
title of this article for example. My original article was
"Palm Protects PDA Turf With Court Actions And New Products."
The final title implies that the law suit is the significant point.
My original title implies that what is significant is that Palm
is aggressive maintaining its market in every legitimate way
possible. In the end, the choice is a personal one. I think mine
is better and the copy editor thinks his is better. That's the
level of editing that I would discuss over a beer to pass the time.
I think Shatner's line applies to writers in this industry who
care too much about every phrase they write: "Get a life."
[1999/09/21]
Sept. 13, 1999, Business Wire reports that 3Com has announced
plans to divide into two companies, spinning-off Palm Computing
into an independent publicly traded company. The current plan
is to sell some shares in an IPO, but later to distribute the
balance of the shares to 3Com shareholders.
[1999/09/18]
Sept. 14, 1999, Handspring Inc., the company formed by former leaders
of Palm Computing Ed Colligan, Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, has
launched its new handheld computer called the "Visor" which is
based on PalmOS.
http://www.handspring.com/
[1999/09/14]
Sept. 10, 1999, Madeleine Acey writes for TechWeb that upper end
Flash memory (8, 16 and 32 Mbit) shortages have been predicted by
Richard Gordon of the Gartner Group with lead times up to 40 weeks.
According to Gordon "The reason is the demand for digital cell
phones is increasing faster than anyone anticipated." Prices can
be expected to rise.
[1999/09/14]
Sept. 9, 1999, Businesss Wire reports that Motorola has announced
availability of "Hurricane Tracker", a software application that
runs on the PageWriter(R) 2000 and PageWriter 2000X two-way paging
devices and provides updated information of approaching hurricanes,
tropical storms and tropical depressions. Registration for the
application and tria service is currently free.
http://www.motorola.com/smartpagers/pw2000x/hurricane.html
[1999/09/14]
Sept. 9, 1999, PR Newswire reports that Microcell Solutions Inc. has announced changes to its Fido(R) PCS wireless phone plans.
Current subscribers will be upgraded automatically to the
new plans.
[1999/09/14]
Sept. 9, 1999, Canada News Wire reports that The Bay and Zellers
have announced new cellular telephone and paging services for
Bay and Zellers credit card customers under the names Global
Contact Cellular and Global Contact Paging.
[1999/09/14]
Sept. 8, 1999, Business Wire reports that IBM has announced the
availability of Via Voice Millenium which features improved
recognition and editing features. Packages are ViaVoice Standard,
ViaVoice Web and ViaVoice Pro. This new version is optimized for
AMD(R) Athlon(TM) and Intel(R) Pentium(R) III. The minimum
system for ViaVoice Standard Millenium is a Pentium 166MHz MMX(TM)
and 48MB RAM in a Windows 95/98 or NT environment, but with 64MB of
RAM for dictation in Microsoft Word. Estimated prices are $59.95 US
for the Standard version, $79.95 for the Web version and $179 for
the Pro version. Non-English versions will be released in the
coming months.
[1999/09/14]
Sept. 7, 1999, Business Wire reports that 3Com Corp. has announced
its new Megahertz(R) 10 Mbps LAN CF+ Card. This CompactFlash(TM)
card has software that runs on Windows CE capable of turning off the
card for power conservation. 3Com claims that it uses 31 milliamps
at full power and is designed to conserve battery power in the
computer. Available worldwide in October, the list price is $99
US.
http://www.3Com.com/mobile/
[1999/09/11]
Sept. 7, 1999, Business Wire reports that Magellan Corporation
(a unit of Orbital Sciences Crop.) and Ionics Circuits USA have
announced shipment of the a Magellan designed ORBCOMM OEM
satellite modem. The modem consists of a complete ORBCOMM
(a low earth orbit satellite constellation communications system)
VHF transceiver with an integrated 10 channel GPS receiver.
[Prices were not given in the article.]
http://www.magellangps.com/
[1999/09/11]
Sept. 7, 1999, Canadian Corporate News reports that SnapTrack, Inc. has announced that it has been awarded a patent, number 5,945,944, that forms the foundation of "Wireless Assisted GPS" (WAG) systems which uses US Global Positioning System GPS) to locate wireless phones and other wireless devices. SnapTrack now holds 10 patents that that